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Wreckateer Review

Last year during Summer of Arcade Fruit Ninja Kinect was released and could have been the most addicting of that lineup. Iron Galaxy is trying to take that fame during the lineup for this year with their addictive Kinect game Wreckateer. Will it be a stand out title for Kinect or will it get buried beneath the competition?

Pros:

Avatar Famestars: Famestars is a new program launching alongside and within Wreckateer, It will also be updated into older games like Fullhouse Poker and World of Keflings. In the future it will be implemented into avatar titles like Fire Pro Wrestling and Avatar Motorcross Madness. Famestar is basically a set of achievements within avatar based games that will have leaderboards that tie between all of them. Avatar costumes will also be unlockable and useable in any game that supports this new program. Some of the challenges included in the games will even be weekly, which means you can show off that you completed them when others didn’t. I do like that it is built into the games instead of being an app like Halo Waypoint but I wish the avatar items were more like avatar awards where they could be worn outside of the games in the program.

I’m Gonna Wreck It: Our good friend Ralph would love Wreckateer because it takes the formula of destruction from Angry Birds, adds it to the competitiveness of Pinball FX2 and puts it all together for an amazing experience. You start out by launching your different types of cannon balls at the forts and castles that have been invaded by goblins. Once you have the ball in the air, you can change its direction and pull off trick shots with different bodily gestures. When you cause mass destruction will take up your multiplier, which will in turn increase your score and position on the leaderboards.

Just One More Game: Like Pinball FX2 before it, Wreckateer has a leaderboard system that makes you want to play just one more round to defeat that friend that is just ahead of you. It shows you your friends highest scoring shot and their total level score right on your screen, that way it can taunt you into becoming addicted to the game. I hope Iron Galaxy adds in some kind of tournament feature similar to those in Pinball FX2. With Wreckateer you will have play for hours without even realizing it.

Bang for your Buck: Wreckateer will set you back ten dollars but it is a great investment. For the price of a pizza you will get avatar awards, famestars inclusion, 60 total levels, an addiction that AA won’t cure, floor multiplayer (you are standing so it really isn’t couch multiplayer) and hours of family friendly gameplay. So go out and get some virtual money and buy this game.

Avatar Awards: Not only can you get costumes via Famestars, you can also get avatar awards that you can wear outside the game. You will get a Wreckateer T-shirt for completing the tutorials, a Wreckateer Hoodie for completing half the levels and a Goblin Hoodie for beating the game. Will you be able to get all the awards and show off how good at destroying castles you are?

Environment: Many different things factor together in the environment and experience a game gives you. Take the soundtrack in Wreckateer for example; it fits great with the animation and the destruction that you cause. The animations of the characters and the interactions you have with them can make anyone smile and all the different levels you will explore while taking down castles, makes for an amazing environment that all ages can enjoy.

Cons:

The Swayze Effect: The only problem I found with Wreckateer wasn’t a problem with the game but with the hardware it was built for. Similar to Patrick Swayze, there are times Kinect must think I’m a ghost because it just doesn’t see the actions I am making. Even with proper lighting and space sometimes the hardware is still picky about what it sees. This doesn’t always happen but when it does it becomes bothersome.

In Conclusion:

There have been a few standout games on the Kinect and now you can add Wreckateer to that list. Iron Galaxy did an amazing job bringing together addictive and competitive gameplay and made the combination totally worth your investment. I can’t recommend enough that you try this breakout hit yourself so you can take down goblins and castles with the rest of us.